Wildfire Smokejumper Trilogy

Chapter 9-2

The fire was so close and the need so urgent, they didn’t bother with the parachutes or the planes. Akbar had his crews fully geared up and on the Firehawk and one of the 212s in under five minutes. Emily and Jeannie had them aloft by five minutes and one second. Six more minutes to reach the canyon at full throttle. Eleven minutes. Eleven of the slowest minutes in his life.

He dragged on a headset and spoke into the microphone on the air attack frequency. There had been fifteen of the twenty-four smokies at the camp, so they were split five and ten between the choppers. Vern was already loading up the rest of the smokies into the other 212 medium-lift Huey helicopter. Jeannie patched Akbar through to Emily’s bird where he knew Krista would be repeating his instructions to the larger team as he said them.

“We’re going in helitack. Everyone make sure your descenders are properly attached on your own harness and your buddy’s.” He screamed silently at his desperation to rush even faster to Laura’s side, but kept his voice steady.

Evans, the backender who climbed aboard to assist Jeannie, rigged rope lines to extender arms that slid out the top of the cargo bay door. They were little more than a bar with a steel loop on the end. A line tied to the loop would dangle a foot beyond the cargo bay door—easy to reach and pull aboard to run through the descender device attached to each smokie’s harness. Evans would throw a line out either side of the cargo bay when they were over the drop site.

The crew checked their descenders and gathered their gear. They’d be going in heavy with chainsaws, axes, and pumps. He wanted to throw the whole team into the canyon. He wanted to build a wall of smokies around Laura. But that wasn’t the right answer.

“Krista, your crew goes in on the top of the ridge to the east. Ox, Chas, and Patrick are going onto the ridge to the west. The rest of the smokies coming in Vern’s bird will join you in a few minutes. Tim, you’re down in the canyon with me.”

“There it is,” Jeannie whispered over the intercom.

Akbar leaned out the open cargo bay door to see. The fire was building. The flames were no longer down in the undergrowth, they were starting to snap into the air above the treetops. He did his best to visualize the points of origin so that he could estimate the fire’s path of travel. All he could see was the clump of trees where Laura must be trapped.

There were many situations that a firefighter didn’t want to get into. One of the most dangerous was in between two heads of running fire. There was a desire to get between them so that you could fight the battle on two fronts from a single position. But it was one of the most dangerous mistakes you could make because there could be no escape route if the two heads merged.

That’s where Laura and her people were.

“Okay,” he returned his attention to the attack plan. “This is an extract.” The safest method would be to take down harnesses and lift the tourists out on winches. But because of the depth of the canyon and the height of the surrounding trees, the choppers would have to stay at least eighty feet in the air. Probably three minutes per winch run: lower the wire to the ground, get the tourist snapped in, winched up, and back off the cable once inside the chopper. Seven people, twenty-one minutes. Wasn’t going to work.

“Rig more lines, Evans. Be sure to stagger-step the lengths. We’re going short-haul.”

“Akbar,” Jeannie spoke up, “with tourists? You can’t do that.”

“Burnover of their position is under thirty minutes. If you have a better idea, I’m open to it.” That came out far harsher than he intended. “Sorry, Jeannie. Let’s drop Ox and his crew first.”

He could hear her reluctant consent even though she didn’t say a word. And she was right, they were right out on the edge of the safety envelope, which was never a good idea.

“Okay people. Let’s keep our heads about us. We’re the MHA smokies. We’re chill, we’re good, and we get it done. Number one priority is safety. I don’t want so much as a broken fingernail on this one. We clear on that, Krista?”

“Up yours, Akbar,” was her friendly reply over the radio.

“Let’s do it!”

Jeannie pulled them to halt. Out the cargo bay window, he could barely see Emily on the far side of the canyon through the smoke haze. Tiny black dots began dropping down lines too thin to see at this distance. They looked as if they were falling, but not gaining speed. Smooth and steady, team! he sent the thought to follow them down.

With the ease of long practice, his own crew was also dropping rapidly. One by one the smokies reached out to grab the rope hanging from just above the door. They pulled it in, slipped the rope into their descender brake, and a buddy would double-check it. Then they’d move to sit on the edge of the cargo bay decking with their feet dangling over thin air. With a final check by Tim, they’d lean out letting the line take their weight, dangle for a moment, and then slide downward out of sight. The next one moved into position in the door and began preparing to do the same as soon as their teammate hit the ground and got off the rope.

When there were only the two of them left, Jeannie began moving the chopper down into the canyon. Evans had snapped pairs of harnesses onto the ends of the ropes and now tossed the ends out the doors.

Before they descended into the haze, Akbar saw the smaller choppers arrive and Henderson’s Incident Command plane appeared high overhead. They’d know to protect the group down in the canyon first and then worry about the fire’s spread second.

He snapped his descender brake onto the line and waited for Jeannie to get them in position over Laura’s group. Tim readied himself on the other side of the cargo bay. They’d go out opposite doors together.

Tim reached across to lay a hand on Akbar’s shoulder. Whether it was to communicate encouragement or to keep Akbar in place until Jeannie was fully positioned, he wasn’t sure.